by D P Wright
“Beth believed in a better place, she was sure we all had souls.”
“Even Dregs or Mutes? What about Vents?” Doc laughed, “No way. I do not believe it. Anyway, what has happened to you? I do not agree with much the Council preach but souls are not real, they’re just excuses made by the lazy, the desperate, those that cannot survive without the hope of escaping somewhere else.”
“Everyone needs an escape.” Kessler held his head in his hands
Doc continued, “I have carved up many a citizen back at the lab and never found one. Get a grip for light’s sake.”
Beck laughed and cackled to himself as the platform continued its descent into the depths of Dis.
More time passed with the rocking carriage in the clutch of silence. Eventually Kessler spoke up in frustration, “How long does this damned contraption take? You said it was a quick journey.” He had not spoken in a while and the words rasped out of his dry throat. In the low crimson light he was not sure if the others were asleep or awake. Moments ticked away without a word until Doc moved, adjusting the position of his rifle.
Beck finally replied, “Do not be impatient for what is to come, Mr Kessler. Enjoy the peace while it lasts.” The Lux must have worn off as Beck spoke with foreboding clarity.
“Tell me what you know of where they take their victims.”
“I only know from the whispers of those who stopped at The Crow and the brief glimpses I see in my dreams.”
“Acheron?”
“Yes. That’s name of the furnace town nearest this sector.”
Doc spoke, his wavering voice barely audible, “What do you know of these furnace towns?”
“Same as you, that they fuel the city with the plasma that flows deep down beneath our feet.”
“Yes I’ve seen the Council’s infogrammes too but what else have you heard?”
“Everyone who takes Lux eventually sees it. Fire and the plasma, beautiful, beautiful light everywhere.”
Doc continued pressing Beck for answers, “Why take them there? You said the disappeared helped them make this chem? How?”
“I don’t know. The Council have dug deep down into the rock for the energy that Dis needs. I think, if my dreams are to be believed, that is where the Malebranche emerged.”
“Why is this happening?” Doc bemoaned.
“Simple.” Beck continued to speak calmly. “You don’t understand do you? The Malebranche offer what the Council cannot, absolute freedom, the ultimate escape from this damned existence. Even you doctor, would not turn down the chance to transcend yourself, throw down the shackles the Council have imprisoned you with. Be truly free.” Beck spoke in a low monotone, as if reciting from a script. “That’s why so many have taken Lux. Look where we live, what we have to endure every day.” Beck rubbed his neck through his suit as he continued to speak, “We have nothing to lose.”
Kessler looked at Doc and nodded. If these Malebranche were not stopped all of Dis could soon be overcome. Baron’s Town and large parts of the rest of District 2 had been taken by Lux, by the Malebranche. Dregs had been going missing in D2 around St John’s for months and, up in D1,Stacey Steckles spoke about large amounts of dead chem heads coming in, all from taking this sim. Haunting premonitions appeared in Kessler’s head of Seekers sniffing out the good, leaving only the bad to become the violent, frenzied Chaff. Doc’s voice interrupted his thoughts, “The Council will soon get this under control. They always do.”
Beck laughed, “The Council are finished. Their good citizens came through Baron’s Town a while ago to stop whatever they thought was happening.” The innkeeper chuckled, “I haven’t seen any of them return.”
“Well, luckily the Council don’t consult you on their every movement, Mute.” Doc sneered.
“True. When we arrive you will see.”
Doc adjusted his spectacles and breathed heavily into his respirator as each person retreated back into their own thoughts and with every clack and sway of the cab each wondered if the images that haunted them lay waiting at the bottom of this shaft.
*
A sudden loud judder and a rattling of chains jarred everyone awake as the crimson light turned green, signalling their arrival in D5. Kessler held his Luther aloft as he stood before the doors, waiting for them to open. Doc struggled to rise in the cumbersome suit but eventually pulled himself to his feet and held his shaking rifle before him. Beck cowered behind them both.
“Get ready,” Kessler warned as Doc braced himself and Beck’s nervous ramblings became a high-pitch squeal.
With a punch of the panel, the door opened showering the occupants of the carriage in light. Doc, nearly falling over Beck who had curled up in a ball behind him, staggered back as a wall of heat overcame the group.
Kessler squinted towards the brightness and it was only after a few moments his eyes began to adjust to the light. The cab had opened up into a small room lit by a bank of bright phosphorus lights along its centre, the uneven rocky walls suggested that it had been cut straight from the rock itself. Rubble was strewn about the room; rocks, random machine parts and tools, most rusted and old, discarded packaging from ration packs and hydration pouches and to Kessler’s right, a plastic table lay bent and broken against the wall. In the far corner of the room a corpse lay curled up in a bloody ball, a thin arm, blackened from exposure to the heat, stuck out clenching a rusted metal coil. Long, dirty grey locks covered an old wrinkled face. His other hand, half concealed in the folds of his soiled white robes, held tightly the frayed string from which a small wooden cross dangled. From the radiated, darkened skin of his neck, an angry gash spilled long dried blood down the side of his frail, bony frame, and onto the floor around him.
Doc moved forward already reaching into his bag for his tools, “Does not look like one of the Seekers.” He lifted the old man’s head up, “Doesn’t have the eyes of one of those Chaff and most certainly does not look like a Vent or corporate, going by his age and attire that is. And what is this he is holding? Wood? Expensive.”
“He’s a Christian.” Kessler reached into his pocket for Bethany’s necklace, “He holds their symbol, the cross, just like this one of Bethany’s.”
“Well he is very much a dead Christian. Seems to have taken his own life.” Doc held up the limp arm holding the bloody piece of metal, “Major trauma to his neck, he would have bleed out quickly, although he would have died eventually without a heat suit.”
“A good soul.” Kessler spoke after a moment’s silent thought, “He must be one of the lost. It means we are on the right track.”
Doc finished prodding the wound with his scalpel and pulled back his hair, “Seems to have been bound from the neck with a heavy collar of some sort, chained maybe.” Doc turned to look at Kessler, “What do you make of it?”
“We need to find Bethany fast.”
Doc stood up, “There are marks around his mouth that could have come from some sort of breathing device to keep him alive but only for a short while, a day, two, maybe three if he was strong willed. Eventually the rads would most certainly have got to him.”
Kessler looked around the room, “Beck, what is this place?”
The innkeeper still sat huddled in the far corner of the carriage, his dark eyes sparkling with the white reflected light, peering over his knees, “Storage rooms used by Techs and corporate engineers. You need to travel through them all to find access to the cavern above. I think there you will find Acheron. But I know very little. The Council hold the secrets to the source of their energy close to their chest, they do not reveal them easily.”
“Let’s go. Time is wasted talking.” Kessler walked back into the carriage and pulled Beck towards the open doorway leading to the tunnels beyond.
“Ok. I’ll follow.” Kessler released the innkeeper as he continued, “But before we venture further I have one request.”
Kessler sighed, “Make it quick.”
“My time here is over, I know that. I feel the Lux clawing its
way through my insides slowly drawing me towards the light, I hear the voices when I close my eyes, see the Seekers that will tear me apart for helping you. I know this. There’s nowhere for me to hide from them, they will find me wherever I go. All that is left is how I choose to let it end.” He stepped close to Kessler and spoke slowly, “I crave Lux, Mr Kessler, and know that it will numb the pain, allow me to bathe in the warmth of light. You have enough of it with you to make that happen. Please, if I bring you to the gates of Acheron, give them to me and allow a poor Mute one final moment of happiness?” He clasped his hands together and bowed before Kessler’s feet.
Kessler looked down at Beck grovelling before him and could not help feel disgust towards this wretched creature. He was everything about Dis he despised and he struggled to look at his mutated features without being overcome by an intense revulsion. However, he had to admit that Beck’s presence after Acheron would not be necessary and with all the danger around them he certainly did not need the distraction of watching over him. “Ok, you get us to Acheron then you can have all the Lux I have, if that really is what you want.”
“Yes.” Beck smiled, bowed again and offered out his hand to shake but Kessler batted it away and shoved him out of the room. “You can trust me, Mr Kessler. If there’s anything in life I take seriously it’s a business deal. I live my life by it.”
The doctor remained lost in his own thoughts, still kneeling over the corpse of the dead Christian. “Whatever horror made this citizen take his own life awaits us somewhere down here,” he spoke aloud to himself, before picking up his bag and following Kessler and Beck out of the room and into the tunnel beyond.
A LOYAL CITIZEN
With light from the store room gone, their torches threw their glow six feet in front of them as the three ran through a series of tunnels, their heavy breathing and the clatter of boots on the metal grating of the tunnel floor echoing in their ears. At times they would stumble over debris which lay strewn across the ground; boxes, shattered plastic, wiring and rubble all made the going difficult. Doc let out a shriek from behind, “The walls!”
“Don’t look at them.” Kessler had seen what their torch light revealed and tried to ignore it but his mind kept straying to his nightmare and the words angrily scrawled across every inch of the rock face. ‘Lux Ferre’ jumped out at them wherever they pointed their light. “Let’s up the pace. How long until we get out of these damned tunnels, Beck?” Kessler barked between gasps of breath as he quickened his stride.
Beck’s voice appeared from the darkness ahead of them, “Not sure. Soon, I think. Keep a look out for a hatch above us.”
Their bulky heat suits slowed their pace further. Kessler struggled to squeeze his burly figure through the smallest of gaps and Doc would fumble past, his rifle, which he carried over his shoulder, a constant delay as it snagged on jagged rocks. Beck seemed to slip through without trouble, as if fuelled by the new found energy of the dark pact he had agreed with Kessler. He would often have to slow his pace and would always frown at the high dwellers as they struggled to drag their tired bodies past large boulders or when they repeatedly paused to catch their breath.
The journey seemed to go on forever until eventually Doc caught up with Kessler and put his hand on his shoulder to get his attention, “Kes,” he gasped as he tried to get oxygen into his heaving lungs, “we can’t continue at this pace, the heat,” he gasped, “our breathing. We are using too much Ox. It will not last the journey.”
Doc was right, Kessler nodded in agreement. His legs were heavy and aching, and the urge to take off his respirator which chafed and pulled at his face was becoming impossible to ignore. His hands clawed at his helmet when Doc grabbed hold of him, “No, the air is poison.” He waved a hand across his neck to emphasise the importance of keeping the vent on.
Beck approached the struggling pair, “Please sirs, don’t dwell in the tunnels, it’s not safe here.”
“That smell, that sickly sweet stench, it’s getting worse. It seems to be coming out of the very walls, I can’t stand it.” Doc had taken his rifle in his hands and fumbled it in his shaky grip as he stared frantically into the darkness both ahead and behind them.
Kessler gasped, “Just focus on the journey ahead, we’ll be fine.”
“I don’t like this one bit, let’s do what we have to and get out of here.” Doc’s voice shook with uncertainty.
“Sirs, the danger, the smell is from the Seekers, they have used this passage recently, we must…” Beck moved between them.
“Damn you, Mute, leave us be with your constant chatter! Give us time.” Doc snapped. He struggled for breath, checked his Ox levels and stared at Kessler, “once we reach Acheron we will need to rest. Hopefully we can pick up more Ox.”
“Only for a brief moment, every second we rest is a moment lost on Beth.” Kessler took another deep breath, “Let’s continue.”
Travelling through the tunnel continued to be slow going. Beck would again disappear beyond their light into the darkness leaving the sluggish Kessler and Doc to stumble onwards behind him. Every time he left them, Kessler began to worry that the innkeeper would try and escape but he always returned, with his panicked look, darting face and pale oily skin which shimmered under the reflected light of the torches.
Eventually, after disappearing for a particularly long time, Beck returned, “I’ve found an exit hatch.” He was excited but still managed to speak quietly, “A short journey from here the tunnel ends in a sealed door above which is a hatch that will lead us to the cavern above.”
Just as Beck had described, the tunnel soon ended in a large metal door which they staggered up to and collapsed gasping for breath. Kessler’s body ached as the scorching temperature took hold. Through clouded condensation, which lay thick on his visor, Kessler could just make out a ladder that made its way up to small hatch in the ceiling. “That hatch will lead you straight to the gates of Acheron.” Beck pointed excitedly.
Kessler looked at Doc, “You stay here, I’ll take a look.”
Doc readied his rifle and pointed it at Beck and spoke, still breathing heavily from his exertions, “Do not think of going anywhere.”
“Doctor, I have thrown my lot in with you. I have nowhere else to go and the one thing I have left in this world is the one thing that has allowed me to survive this long on Dis. Business. A constant in this world. Everyone wants something and there’s always a deal to be made. We’ve made a bargain and I look forward to completing it.”
Kessler had hoisted himself up the ladder and was trying to turn a large metal wheel which sealed the hatch shut but it was locked tight. He looked down at Beck and Doc, “It’s digitally sealed and the damned thing’s made of cadermite, way too strong to break through with carbine or rifle blast. Whoever put this hatch here meant business. Any ideas?” The door at the base of the ladder had a window but it was blacked out with grime and Kessler was unable to see through it.
“These tunnels run parallel to the cavern above and have a series of hatches leading up to it, we’ll just have to travel to the next one,” Beck spoke, the thick tone of disappointment weighing down each word.
“I’m coming down, try that door.”
Beck looked at both of them before cowering against the wall. Doc pushed passed him, “Out of my way.” He tried the handle but it would not budge, the opening mechanism locking with a loud clunk, “I think our luck maybe out.” He paused for a second before putting his ear to the cold metal surface, “Hello?” He banged the door with his rifle butt and turned to Kessler who had just finished climbing down, “I think I heard something, someone talking.”
“Careful, we don’t know what may lurk behind those doors.” Beck remained curled up against the wall behind both of them.
“We’ve no option.” Kessler banged on the heavy metal, “We don’t have time and cannot go back.” He put his ear to the door to hear muffled words and shouted, “Hello, can you let us in? We’re travelling to Acheron.” Kessler t
urned and spoke to the doctor, “The hatch in the ceiling may be made of cadermite, but this door certainly is not. Pass me your rifle.”
Kessler grabbled the weapon from Doc and with two quick blasts the handle shattered, the old, rusted metal no match for Doc’s high powered Lazarus rifle. As the door buckled and crashed to the floor a shriek from within was quickly followed by beams of light which hissed passed the detective’s head.
Both Kessler and Doc scrambled behind the wall, either side of the buckled door, and Beck lay flat on the rocky floor, his hands covering his head. The detective threw the rifle back to Doc as more lances of light fizzed through the air. He had already taken his Luther from its holster and heard the reassuring whine of the power cells charging, ready to be discharged at a moment’s notice.
Peering into a cloud of dust and debris, the horrific stench of human waste mixed with the now familiar nauseating scent from the tunnels. Another shriek came from somewhere within, “Don’t come near me, monsters, I’ll blow us all up, stay away!”
Doc and Kessler glanced at each other, both alerted by the desperate squeal of the unmistakable tones of a Midtown accent. “Don’t shoot, we just need passage through, we need to get to Acheron. There are no monsters here citizen,” Kessler yelled from behind the mangled wreck of the door.
“Show your faces.”
“Ok, ok. Now there are three of us and we are coming out slowly, let’s keep that piece of yours powered down, ok?” Kessler waved for the other two to rise. As they slowly got to their feet the dust and smoke began to clear to reveal a chaotic scene. The room seemed to be a store of some kind but most of the shelves which had lined the walls had been overturned, their contents, boxes, pouches, bottles and various other containers were scattered haphazardly across the floor. However, what made all three take a step back and Beck cower behind the detective’s burly frame, clutching the back of his heat suit in terror, were the four bodies, three of which were lying slumped in various poses against the wall to their left and the other lying on his front near the far exit. They all appeared to have blast injuries to various parts of their bodies and wore the uniform of the DPD, their grubby undershirts and white cloaks bore the gold cog as did their discarded black plate armour which lay strewn in amongst the rubble. All, through various states of decomposition, stared back with the black eyes of Lux. One body was more decomposed than the others and from its grey, dead skin red bulbous sores festered.
